


The Cage

by orphan_account



Category: One Piece
Genre: Feels but with some romance, LuLaw/LawLu, M/M, Point of view as Law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 12:01:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5205161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You haven't been right for a long time. You no longer even remember what it feels like to be considered 'right' anymore. Standing here with too many thoughts in your head, frozen in the past but despairing in the present, Straw Hat staring as you mutter quietly under your breath, "The cage is towering.."</p>
<p>The battle begins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cage

You're not right, and you know it. But a small part of you tells you that you can be better while another part says _'You'll never be right again'_  and you agree. Because you haven't been right in a long time, you no longer remember what it feels like anymore, you're a lost cause.

It's not that you don't know the difference between what's perceived to be right and what's suppose to be wrong.

(A voice, your own voice, whispers at the back of your mind not tauntingly, but it's said like a tired fact, repeated to many times with too many voices to count,  _'You don't care'_. And _that couldn't be more right_.)

You wonder when your mind began speaking more truth than your words. Something speaks, the one side of you that has a lying truth deep rooted and dark says:  _'That's a lie too'_ , but you don't know if you should listen to it, but how do you run from your demons? You don't know if there's any truth within you at all anymore.

The consequences of too many lies jumbled with truths in a darkness known as your ( _Stolen_ life). But at least you know that's a truth that can glitter among the piles of lies that courses through every fiber of your being and stacks together in your morbid mind.

You know that you're living on stolen time, but it's been a long time since you've lived.

_(You died in Flevance; a walking corpse with dead eyes and an even deader spirit._ )

There have been a few times when you felt alive, ( _a smile hidden by paint, cigarette smoke clinging to pink feathers, and a strange laugh to follow)._  But even then it was just strands of color never bright enough to make you breath for long. You've given up on breathing for awhile now. ( _Since the sound of three bullets and a bright smile painted on a dead face among white)._  Who knew that those moments traveling the sea with a moron would become everything to you? But it's not the moments that are everything, it was the chainsmoking, tattooed fool that tried to save you.

(Another more quiet part of you whispers about _a straw hat, and a smile that makes the ground shake_.)

But you won't think about that for awhile, not when your goal is so close that you can taste it blending with the red leaking past your lips, (so much red coating everything and it's not just your blood...) With that angry desperation you've always had when hearing his name, but now you can win.

And the Straw Hats', they can lose the person who makes the skies and the wind obey willingly, the one whose laughter drowns out the darkness and washes away sins, the one whose smile is like a beacon and whose voice cuts through everything wrong with you and makes the world hold its breath.

You breath with pain shooting up your arm and bullets embedded into your skin, the lead burns when bullets are suppose to feel numb. The cage is towering, and that's what you think, frozen and horrified for those few moments, thirteen again.

(You don't realize that you're muttering under your breath at the time, and you won't realize until years from now, after the Pirate King's death. _"The cage is towering..."_ Straw Hat blinks, doesn't say anything as he turns and frowns towards where Doflamingo waits. You don't see the determination burning in his eyes or the way he locks his jaw and straightens his stance at the time, caught up in the past but still despairing in the present.)

When he lifts you, (the sudden tug of the handcuffs digging into your wrists, you giving a breathless gasp, bullets shifting deeper, mind cleared but reeling all in the same breath) you can't think of anything more embarrassing, but that's not at the front of your mind. (His heartbeat can't be heard but you can feel the strong intakes of breath. He's alive and maybe, just maybe, he can make you breathe too.) As he runs, you can feel every footstep (stomp, because he isn't quiet in his feet or his heart) but you can't get over the fact that you can feel him breath.

(Marineford, blood on hands, breath in throat, silent tears streaming on your patient's face, ' _He'll live, even if he doesn't want to, it's your reputation, it's the era'._ )

Fight after fight, each flashy and reckless and- did you just breath? Moment gone and you come close to landing against the stone underneath you, (falling only to be caught by sandal covered feet). He lands on you, bullets digging deeper, you hold back a gasp. Cabbage, as he calls him, comes and goes as your tossed back over his shoulder. (Like all the promises) and really you're not a promise to him. (Promises are one of the most fragile things to exist, never to be kept, never to be broken.)

Each of his footsteps bring you closer to your goal, disregarding the voice in your head (' _This is it_ ') ignoring the shouts in the background and the bullets deeper and like fire in your flesh, eyes set and something churns ugly and twisted in your gut (your anxious, and that fact in itself makes your breath hitch). You mutter, quiet and soft under your breath "Straw Hat-ya.." and he doesn't turn toward you to acknowledge what you said.

You take a breath because you didn't mean to say it (but, _'This is it'_ ) and you're never going to see Straw Hat again, and that makes something twist and ache and- your heart hasn't cried out in years, but right now, it feels like its _screaming_.

And you want to kiss him, with pain and blood and numbness and- so many shouts, press against him and make him remember you. (You're selfish, you want him to never forget you like you'll never forget him.) He turns to you, injured and eyes burning with a grin that's wild and free and it's him, (your breath leaves) he stares straight into your eyes, grin still present (your eyes flicking, unknowingly, to his lips) as his grin stretches into something even more feral and wild and free while looking into gleaming eyes ( _'No'_ ) and the battle starts again.

Fighting Doflamingo, watching him, Straw Hat fall fall fall- your eyes turn back, wild and angry. The demon grins, and that's when the blood in your mouth makes it real (you're alive again) going toe to toe, without a plan.

(Your mind whispers _'You don't care'_ , and you hiss back _'Just reckless'_ ).

Before you know it, you're losing. Hands being raised in the sky, staring down the bane of your existence in his glasses covered eyes, you won't back down. (Alive on exhilaration drowning out helplessness and fueling anger.) Doflamingo grins, everything wicked from your childhood, leg raised, ( _"The cage is towering.. again"_ ) Corazón's smile has never felt more far away.

* * *

  _('No')_

Arm laying inches away, exhilaration and fear and guilt and you know that he's still alive, has to be, being blurred out by the fire shooting up your arm, throbbing and another scream leaves your throat, wallowing at this demon's feet inches away, gun out, eyes meeting yours, death staring you in the face. A scream and "Straw Hat-ya!..."

"The cage wasn't large enough to keep 'it' caged!"

This is the beginning of the end, and you haven't even got your kiss yet. ( _'No'_ ), you watch your savior (what a ridiculous thing to have) and the demon face off, you struggling to move and see and (eyes widening, heart thumping in your ears, arm gone and dully throbbing, side hissing for you to stop moving, he hit the wall, _'No'_ ).

Your vows to die with the future, if he dies for you, which is funny considering you're so caught up in the past. The irony is enough to make you choke back a laugh with the blood coming from your throat. He can't die or you die with him. (You hoping desperately that he'll do what he always does and keep his lungs breathing for the sake of nakama, for you, for himself.) The part of you that still wants to die here hoping for a miracle where he walks and you die. But fate never really has been on your side.

Another desperate cry, and everything about you stops, eyes widening at the sight. He's standing with that fire burning in his eyes, then you know, swallowing down your own blood and pain slowly coming back from that frozen moment, you're awed and disbelieving and doubtful, the look in his eyes, and - _you know-_ that he's going to win.

And he does. Your eyes checking over him standing, filing away his injuries for later, looking about ready to collapse but alive. Your eyes closing on their own, heart calming, hands shaking, relief filling you and- you've never been one to believe in god. (Your family, including the sister, was always a different story. You always went to church to make mother smile, always be a good boy. You hope she can't see you now, but she always did have eyes in the back of her head). And really, you still don't, but you believe in him. _(A s_ _traw hat, a smile, and the smell of freedom._ ) Regardless, in your mind - a cold and desolated always thinking morbid place- you sigh and say relieved and alive: ("Thank god").

* * *

  _('No')_

Bandaged and aching, healing the other Straw Hats', disregarding yourself, only bandaged up enough to stay alive. Straw Hat ( _Luffy_ ) asleep and alive and breathing, you made sure.

(Waking up, feet barely carrying you, everything sore and aching, arm attached but loose and throbbing, stumbling past the snoring and quietly breathing Straw Hat's, eyes on him, tired and heavy, and you trip, catching yourself on the edge of his bed. Taking a shaking breath, leaning down so your head can press against his chest, eyes closing and sighing in relief, too quiet in a even quieter place. His heart thumping, ' _ba bump ba bump ba bump ba bump'._

After a few moments, you look at his face.

Your fingers brushing back the hair falling in his eyes, your eyes flicking down to his lips, moving closer without realizing, hot puffs of air coming from him, you, inches away, ready to press against his, eyes widening _'No'_ and pulling back, stumbling on the heels of your feet.)

Sitting beside Straw Hat with the shadows surrounding you and the snores of his crew filling the room, his quiet breaths the only sound in your ears. You watch his chest rise and fall while listening to his shifts in breathing and watching his hand twitch at times. You grab his hand, your fingers finding his pulse on instinct, his hand unmoving but warm and fingers sliding against yours unconsciously.

You stay like this, feeling someone watching you in these few moments of silence with Straw Hat, too tired and focused to bother with them.

* * *

 Later, at night, after the party Straw Hat threw, still in bandages but alive and that's all that matters. You told yourself, watching him with a smile and sake in your hand, tipping the cup back, hoping to drown your fears _that_ _his stitches can come out if he doesn't stop acting like a fool_ , but he's Straw Hat, so what can you do? (He was smiling and you have to admit that he looks better among friends shouting and drinking then cooped up in Kiros house.)

The party gone, left in a few laughs from behind walls as the nights cold air brushes against your arms and your eyes train below at the calm waves, lost in your own thoughts. You hear footsteps quiet and not meant to scare or sneak up on you.

It doesn't stop your hand from searching for your nodachi. You look to where you hear the footsteps coming from, shoulders dropping and body relaxing at the sight of Straw Hat walking toward you with a smile, pleasant surprise flashing in his dark eyes.

He stops next to you, hands against the railing, looking at the vast expanse of sea. You notice how he looks toward the horizon. You feel your lips picking up on one side, always looking forward, now looking for his remaining crew.

You both say nothing, basking in the silence. (You are, but you can never guess him. Maybe that's where the excitement comes from).

"Torao.." you look at him, his eyes still looking forward but lips picking up. He grabs your hand and you let him, interlacing your fingers with his, his smile reaches his eyes and it feels- right. Feeling your fingers together with his and his palm pressed against yours. He turns back toward the sea and you wait (want) to stay like this all night in compatible silence with a hand in yours and the sea offering new adventures.

Before a hand tugs yours, you wide eyed and taken aback, hands holding your arms firm and you preparing to scold him, eyes already narrowing-

Lips pressed against yours, soft but firm, mind froze not even caught up enough to blush, he pulls back smiling and laughing in his eyes, looking at you, fingers shooting toward your lips, wide eyed and-

"I never break my promises, Torao!"

_'No'_ and your eyes widen even farther, he didn't say anything, but the look in his determined gleaming eyes with the shouts in your ears and _'No-'_.

He's grabbing your other hand bringing you back to the present, leaving the fingers on your lips to drop, scowl in place, cheeks slightly flushed, hearing him laugh you grin (it's almost a smile). You still worry that Straw Hat will forget you once the alliance is over, but hearing his laugh in your ears- you're selfish and you won't live with just being forgotten in his eyes. You can't live with that, you'll make him remember you, after all (your hand squeezes his) you have more time now.

(You'll never forget Straw Hat. Not in a million years or lives. So why not return the favor?)


End file.
